Recording-clock or time-stamp.



A.STORER. I

RECORDING CLOCK 0R TIME STAMP.

APPLICATION FILED OUT. 19, 1909.

1,032,714. 1 Patented July 16, 1912.

COLUMBIA PLANOBRAPH (10.. WASHINGTON. b. c.

UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

ALBERT STORER, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS, ASSIGNOR 0F ONE-HALF T0 JOHN WEIGEL, OF BOSTON, MASSACHUSETTS.

RECORDING-CLOCK 0R TIME-STAMP.

To all whom it may concern:

Be it known that I, ALBERT Sronnn, a citizen of the United States, residing in Boston, county of Sufiolk, and State of Massachusetts, have invented an Improvement in Recording-Clocks or Time-Stamps, of which the following description, in connection with the accompanying drawings, is a specification, like letters on the drawings representing like parts.

This invention relates to a recording clock or time stamp of that class in which members of the stamp mechanism indicative of minutes and hours are driven in unison with the minute and hour hands of a clock.

In instruments of the class described as heretofore constructed and known tome, the minute hand of the stamp mechanism is attached or directly connected with the center arbor carrying the minute hand of the clock. This construction or arrangement is defective in that when an impression is made by a platen forcing the tape or other recording surface against the minute and hour members of the stamp mechanism, the center arbor of the clock is held from rotating for a short interval, usually about one second, which causes the clock to lose time and renders the record inaccurate. This is especially true when the recording clock or time stamp is frequently operated as for instance in police signal service, where the time stamp is operated as high as eight hundred times a day. F urthermore, the blow received by the center arbor of the clock is liable to stop and injure the same.

The present invention has for its object to provide .a recording clock or time stamp with which the above noted defects are over come, and a reliable and accurate record obtained. For this purpose, the minute member of the time stamp is practically separated from the center arbor of the clock, so that the blow of the platen upon the said minute member has no influence upon the said center arbor of the clock, yet provision is made for operatively connecting said minute member with said center arbor, so that when an impression is not being made, the said minute member is driven by the center arbor the same as if it were rigidly attached thereto, and so that when an impression is being made, the minute member is held stationary without interfering with Specification of Letters Patent.

Application filed. October 19,1909.

Patented July 16, 1912.

Serial No. 523,463.

the rotation of the center arbor of the clock which continues to rotate the same as when an impression is notbeing made. As a result, the accuracy. ofv the clock is not interfered with, and liability of stopping the clock is avoided. For this purpose, means are interposed between the minute member of the stamp and the minute shaft or center arbor of the clock, for operatively connecting-the same together so as to revolve in unison under normal condition of non-use, and so as to permit the minute member of the stamp to be arrested in. its rotation, without stopping rotation of the center arbor of the clock.

The operative connection referred to is such asto rotate the minute member to its normal relation with the center arbor as soon as the minute member is released by the platen.

The intermediate operativeconnection referred to, may and preferably will be mechanical as will be described, but it is not desired to limit the invention in this respect.

These and other features of this invention will be pointed out in the claims at the end of this specification.

Figure l is a front elevation with parts broken. away of an apparatus embodying this invention. Fig. 2, a plan view of the apparatus shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 3, a detail in plan of the stamping mechanism removed. Fig. 4, an underside view of the stamping mechanism shown in Fig. 1. Fig. 5-, a detail in vertical section and on an enlarged scale to be referred to, and Figs. 6, 7, 8 and. 9, details to be referred to.

Referring to. the drawings, (4 represents a casing containing in its upper part a clock mechanism 7) of any suitable or usual construction, it being provided with the minute hand 0 and an hour-hand cl, which cooperate with a dial 6. The minute hand 0 is secured to the center arbor f.

The center arbor f is extended below the lower plate 9 of the clock frame, which rests upon studs or posts 72. erected upon a bed plate 2' constituting'the support for the minute member-.10 and the hour member 12 of the time stamp. The. bed plate 2' is removable from the casing a and as herein shown is supported by the upright sides 13 of said casing, said sides having guideways 14 in which the bed. plate slides. The bed plated is retained in the guideways 14; by .a front wall or plate 15, which is detachably secured to the sides 13 by screws 16 or otherwise.

The minute member 10 and hour member 12 of the time stamp cooperate with a dial 17 (see Figs. 1: and 8) having members and graduations corresponding to those on the clock dial 0. The dial 1? is secured. to a cylindrical projection 18 on the underside of the bed plate.

The time indicating devices of the stamp have cooperating with them a platen or impression member 20, which is suitably supported in the lower part of the casing a and may be operated in any suitable or usual manner.

The minute member 10 of the time stamp is located below and in alinement with the center arbor f of the clock but is separated therefrom, so that a blow received by the minute member 10 is not received by the center arbor of the clock, consequently liability of stopping or injuring the clock is avoided, when the platen 20 is operated to force the record sheet or strip, not shown, against the stamp mechanism to make a record. Provision is made, however, for operatively connecting the center arbor f with the minute member 10 of the time stamp, so that, under normal conditions, that is, when an impression is not being made, the minute member 10 is rotated by the center arbor in unison with it, and so that under abnormal condi tions, that is when a record is being made, the minute member 10 of the time stamp is held from rotation while the center arbor of the clock continues to rotate. In the present instance, I have shown one arrangement or construction for accomplishing this result, which consists of a substantially light spring rod 21 provided at one end with a coil or part of a coil 22, which is extended about the upper end of the minute member 10 and is secured thereto by a cap screw 23 or in any other suitable manner. The other end of the spring is made as a substantially straight finger or arm 2st, which is adapted to enter a vertical slot 25 (see Figs. 6, 7 and 8), between two lugs or cam projections 26, 27, depending from a crank or arm 28 secured as by the clamping screw 29 to the lower end of the center arbor f.

The lugs or cam projections 26, 27, are provided with oppositely inclined under surfaces 80, 31, constituting cam surfaces, which cooperate with the spring finger 24: for a purpose as will be described. Normally the spring finger 24 is extended intothe slot 25, between the cam projections 26, 27 as represented in Fig. 8, and the minute member 10 is driven from the center arbor f in unison with it by the crank 28 and spring 21, which latter acts after the manner of a clutch. hen however, the time stamp is operated to make a record, the minute member 10 is held stationary by the platen 20, which has been operated to force the record strip or sheet, usually paper, against the minute and hour members and the stationary dial of the stamp medianism. While the minute member 10 is thus held from rotating, the center arbor f and its crank 28 continue to rotate and the crank acts on the spring clutch in a direction to wind the coiled part 22 thereof about the now stationary minute member 10 as represented in Fig. 9. In this way, the clock is not stopped when an impression is made, but contin es to run, thereby avoiding inaccuracies in the record by the stopping of the clock, espe cially in police and other service where the time stamp is operated a very large number of times a day, and also avoiding the necessity of frequent retiming or adjustment of the clock.

is soon as the minute member 10 is released by the platen 20, after each. impressicn, it is rotated by the power stored up in the spring 21 in the same direction as the center arbor f, until the minute member has caught up with the clock and agrees with the minute hand of the clock. in other words, the power stored up in the spring by the clock continuing to run while the minute member 10 of the stamp is stationary, restores the rotatable members of the stamp to their proper position with relation to the dial 1? of the stamp so as to agree with the clock.

The cam surfaces 30, 31, act as guides to enable the connection between the spring finger 2t and the crank 28 to be elfected, after the clock and time stamp have been assembled, for it is only necessary to turn the minute member 10 in either direction until the finger rides up one of the cam surfaces and springs into place in the slot 25.

The minute member 10 of the stamp is provided with a pinion 40 (see Figs. 3 and 5), which meshes with a gear on a shaft 12 stepped at one end in the bed plate 2' and having its other end centered by the screw 48 carried by a raised portion or bar 4st at tached to or forming part of a disk 15, secured as by screws 16 in a recess in the top of the bed plate. The shaft 42 has fast on it a pinion 4:7, which meshes with a gear 18 secured to or forming part of a sleeve or hub 19 constituting the hour member of the stamp, it being provided with the projection or hand 50 (see Fig.

The minute member 10 is shown as a shaft having hearings in a hub or sleeve 51 depending from the disk 15 and provided with an enlargement 52 (see Fig. 5), which shoulders against the end of the sleeve or hub 51 to take the blow of the platen, the shaft 10 having a minute hand 53 on its outer surface.

'lhe blow of the platen upon the hour member is taken up by the disk a5 as is also the blow on the minute member 10, and as this disk is firmly secured to the bed plate, it will be seen, that the heavy bed plate and the disk 45 firmly secured thereto absorb all the shock of the blow by the platen, and that danger of stopping or deranging the clock is reduced to a minimum and is practically nil.

I have herein shown one construction of apparatus embodying this invention, but I do not desire to limit the invention to the particular construction shown.

Claims:

1. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a recording mechanism provided with a rotatable minute member, a clock mechanism having a center arbor substantially in alinement with said minute member, a crank on said-center arbor provided with cam projections separated to form a slot, and a spring having one end secured to the said minute member and its free end extended into said slot, substan tially as described.

2. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a recording mechanism provided with a rotatable minute member, a.

clock mechanism having a center arbor substantially in alinement with said minute member and separated therefrom, and arms secured at one end to said members and having their free ends in engagement with each other to connect the center arbor with the minute member, one of said arms being capable of permitting the minute member to be rotated by and simultaneously with the center arbor of the clock when the minute member is unrestrained and to be restrained from movement without interfering with the rotation of the center arbor of the clock, substantially as described.

8. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a casing, a recording mechanism supported by said casing and provided with a rotatable minute member, a clock mechanism located in said casing above the recording mechanism and provided with a center arbor in alinement with said minute member and separated therefrom, and laterally extended arms secured to said minute member and said center arbor between said recording mechanism and said clock mechanism and having their free ends in engagement to connect the center arbor with the minute member, one of said arms being capable of yielding to permit the minute member to be rotated by and simultaneously with the center arbor of the clock when the minute member is unrest-rained and to be restrained from movement without interfering with the rotation of the center arbor of the clock, substantially as described.

l. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a bed plate having a hollow projection, a stationary dial secured to the end or" said projection, a sleeve rotatable in said projection and provided with an hour indicator, a gear on said sleeve, a disk secured to said bed plate above said gear and provided wit-h a hub extended into said sleeve and with a raised portion or bar, a shaft rotatable in said hub and provided with an enlargement engaging the end of said hub and having a minute indicator, a pinion on said shaft, a gear in mesh with said pinion, a shaft for the last mentioned gear stepped in said bed .plate at one end and supported at its other end by said raised port-ion or bar, substantially as described.

5. In an apparatus of the class described, in combination, a recording mechanism provided with a rotatable minute member, a clock mechanism having a center arbor substantially in alinement with said minute member, a crank on the center arbor provided with a slot, and a spring having one end secured to the said minute member and its free end extended into the slot in said crank, substantially as described.

In testimony whereof, I have signed my name to this specification in the presence oi two subscribing witnesses.

ALBERT STORER.

Witnesses J AS. H. CHURCHILL, J. MURPHY.

Copies of this patent may be obtained for five cents each, by addressing the Commissioner of Patents. Washington, D. C. 

